In the communications wiring of a building it is necessary to have socket connectors which may easily be connected to fixed building wiring, and into which devices (such as computers) may easily be plugged.
Many different ways of achieving this have been devised. In the case of the telephone socket used by British Telecom PLC of London, England, for example, the socket connector is attached to a printed circuit board, and insulation displacement connectors (IDCs) are mounted on the circuit board to enable the wires to be connected. This product is not complete in itself, and cannot be used except if permanently attached to a wallplate, and is unsuitable for other applications.
In designs produced by AT & T Corporation of New Jersey, USA and Panduit Corporation of Tinley Park, Ill., USA and Krone GmbH of Berlin, Germany, "lead frame" technology is used to manufacture a contact for the socket connection, with an integral insulation displacement contact being produced at the other extremity of this contact. These socket contacts are arranged to extend from the socket to a cavity where they connect directly to the insulation displacement contacts. They can be connected to each other either by virtue of being produced from the same piece of metal (Panduit & AT & T), or by welding two separate contacts together to simplify production of tile stamped parts (Krone). Due to the nature of their manufacturing process, they are only generally available in a single standard wiring configuration, as the process is not capable of producing different connection configurations without significant additional expense. In attempting to use lead-frame or similar technology to manufacture these connectors, illogical or undesirable connection sequences are necessary for the termination of the building wiring. Leadframe devices typically require eleven different parts. An example of the AT & T type connector is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,096,442 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,865,564. An example of the Krone type connector is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,074,804.
In designs produced by AMP Incorporated of Harrisburg, and subsequently adopted by many other manufacturers, a printed circuit board is used to connect an assembly of socket contacts to two or more assemblies of insulation displacement contacts. The printed-circuit assembly is then mounted into an overall plastic body which includes the necessary features to mate with the plug connector, and to fit onto a mounting plate. Such designs can easily be produced in a variety of different wiring sequences, but require many more assembly steps to make a finished product than the leadframe devices. The AMP designs typically use seven different parts to manufacture a connector capable of termination using industry standard wire termination tools.
The Prior Art devices described, as well as requiring a large number of parts, have the disadvantage that they can only be made available as complete usable assemblies in their own right, to be removably mounted to a variety of simple wallplates or patch panels, by the provision of suitable mounting features on the panels. They cannot be provided as partial assemblies for incorporation into devices already including the necessary jack body features, which is a very effective way to reduce product cost; nor can they be readily produced with different profiles to allow their fitment to devices with alternative mounting features. There is a proliferation of products around the world using different mounting features to clip the connector assemblies to wallplates or patch panels, and these are not generally compatible between manufacturers.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a communications connector which can be provided as a partial assembly for incorporation into devices which already include the necessary jack body features.
It is a further Object of the invention to provide a communications connector which can be produced with different profiles to allow fitment to devices with different mounting features.